Phoenix refocuses for another phase of preseason NIT

Monday

Nov 25, 2013 at 12:01 AMNov 25, 2013 at 12:30 AM

Adam Smith / Times-News

ELON — Even though it’s the consolation bracket, there are more games to play under the NIT Season Tip-Off banner, so finding meaning or motivation shouldn’t be a difficult proposition for the Elon men’s basketball team.

“Sure, it’s not Madison Square Garden, but it is the preseason NIT at Elon,” coach Matt Matheny said. “It’s a great opportunity and it’s really good for our program in a number of respects.”

Elon is the host site for two games matching predetermined opponents today and Tuesday. First up for the Phoenix is an intriguing assignment against the nation’s No. 1 ranked team — in Division II.

Metro State lost to Rhode Island 66-63 and beat Farleigh Dickinson 87-76 to open the NIT Season Tip-Off last week, though the Roadrunners’ record reflects a 2-0 mark on the season because they are counting these games against higher-tiered Division I teams as exhibitions.

Metro State, which is located in Denver, went 32-3 last season and lost to Drury in the Division II national championship.

Elon is coming off three straight losses, two of them in particular of the gut-wrenching variety. The Phoenix led Charlotte until the last 4½ minutes went off the rails and, in its most-recent game, blew an eight-point lead in the final two minutes against Canisius.

“We’re getting better. We’re improving,” Matheny said. “We just unfortunately didn’t get the reward at the end against those teams. It’s a lot tougher to take when you don’t win, but the bigger picture hasn’t changed.”

Matheny chuckled at the suggestion that maybe Canisius should be relegated to dressing in an Alumni Gym storage room this week.

The Golden Griffins defeated Elon in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament to end last season. Then last week, Billy Baron’s cold-blooded 3-pointer over Elon’s Luke Eddy at the buzzer completed Canisius’ crunch time comeback and 86-85 victory.

“It was so much bigger than the last play,” Matheny said. “We put ourselves in the position to win the game, but we made some mistakes down the stretch.

“I told our guys, ‘you will be in that position again and I will trust you then.’ I have complete confidence we’ll learn from that.”

NIT Season Tip-Off

Consolation round

Who: Metro State (2-0) at Elon (2-3)

When: 7:30 tonight

Where: Alumni Gym, Elon

Series: First meeting

Doubleheader: At 5 p.m., Canisius (2-2) and Georgia State (2-2) play at Alumni Gym on the other side of the four-team pod